England's Red Roses
by Wurstoftheitalians
Summary: Arthur invites Alfred over to check out his new garden- which Alfred reluctantly agrees to. But when he sees Arthur without a shirt, Alfred starts to question his motive for doing things for Arthur.


"Almost. There," Alfred panted, collapsing in the shade outside Arthur's house. "Ugh." The heatwave that was going on was near torture for Alfred, especially because he couldn't deal with it the way he wanted too.

In any other circumstance Alfred would be lounging by the pool outside the UN building watching Ukraine or Belarus in their bikinis or by annoying other countries-like France- by pushing them into the pool.

But no.

Instead of lounging around relaxing-like any good hero does when not saving the world- he was heading over to Arthur's house.

Why? Because Arthur wanted to show him his garden.

As you can imagine, when Arthur first asked Alfred to give up his day at the pool to look at stupid flowers Alfred cracked up. But when Arthur seemed genuinely disappointed, Alfred agreed to go.

"I'm a good damn friend," Alfred muttered, slowly getting up from the shade to approach the front door. Alfred didn't bother knocking, he was the biggest superpower in the world, doors should already be open for him.

He let himself in, and upon not seeing Arthur immediately after he did so yelled. "Britain! Arthur! Where are you!"

Alfred heard a faint response that sounded like "in the back, Alfred" and so he made his way through Arthur's house to the porch. He still didn't see Arthur and was about to yell out his name again until he finally spotted him.

Alfred's breath caught.

Arthur was bent over one of the flowers, but when he rose Alfred couldn't help but notice that he was shirtless. His usual pasty white skin now had a slight color to it from the days spent working in the sun and muscles rippled under his chest. Alfred didn't even know that Arthur had muscles, but now he was almost feeling self-conscious.

A faint pink colored Alfred's cheeks as he realize he was gawking at Arthur. Something that had it been Ukraine, he could easily justify without a hint of discomfort. But to be staring at England. . . he couldn't explain the feeling that overtook him.

Well he could. Quite graphically and erotically. But that didn't mean that this feeling made any sort of sense to him.

Arthur looked up and smiled. "Hello, Alfred, you're earlier than I expected. I was just making sure everything was in place for you."

"Arthur, dude, p-put a shirt on will you?" Alfred stammered, forcing his eyes down and hoping Arthur didn't notice.

Arthur grabbed his shirt and began to button it, unnerved by Alfred's request.

When he was finally covered up Alfred felt his heart rate start returning to normal.

_See. Now he's just Arthur again. No fantasies, no inclinations. Nothing. Just Britain._

Arthur smiled. "Well, let me show you around."

Alfred nodded, ignoring the way Arthur's eyes lit up as he spoke.

_Dude, what is wrong with me?_

Alfred followed Arthur around the garden but though he was paying attention to Arthur's mouth, he wasn't listening to what was coming out of it.

"Alfred?" Arthur's full eyebrows furrowed.

_I like the way he says my name._

"America! Are you listening to a word I'm saying?"

"Mhm?"

Arthur crossed his arms. "You obviously don't care to be here, why don't you just leave?" He cast his green eyes over his plants. "I had hoped you matured enough to respect nature, but you're still just a helpless git."

"Hey, hey! Dude, I'm totally interested in this kinda stuff," Alfred gave him a grin.

Arthur eyed him suspiciously. "Really? Then what kind of flower is that?" He pointed to a bush with orange blooms with petals that crinkled at the edges.

"Umm. . . a poppy?" Alfred guessed, recalling some flower that at one point was mentioned to him.

"That's right."

"Really?"

"No, you twit. It's a marigold."

"Oh," Alfred said in disappointment.

"You shouldn't blow smoke at me, I know you well enough to know when you're lying."

A thrill went up Alfred's spine at that.

_Maybe I'm just horny? I haven't had sex in the last couple of days. . ._

"Come on, dude, give me another one! That was just a warm up, I'm the hero, I got this!" Alfred boasted.

Arthur cocked an eyebrow and Alfred felt the blush returning to his cheeks. As Arthur appraised him he finally gave in with a shrug. "Alright." He lead Alfred over to another section of the garden. This held flowers of a ruby red color that opened out quite delicately and gave off a sweet aroma. "What are these?"

Alfred knew instantly what they were, but he wanted to watch Arthur's expression. His face was hard from frustration-something Alfred was accustomed to- but there was almost a hint of worry in his eyes.

_He wants me to get it right._

After a moment Arthur sighed. "This is a waste of my time. Thanks for coming over, you may see yourself out." As he turned away Alfred said:

"Red roses."

Arthur halted.

"But they're not just red roses. They're famous in England. It's on the badge of your Rugby Union team."

Arthur spun around and sputtered, "How, how did you of all people know that?"

"Remember, you invited me over to watch that lame ass rugby game? Which so totally didn't compare with American Football, but you were going on and on about the history behind the badge and I remembered it. Dude, thanks to you I have a whole bunch of random useless bits of information clouding up my thinking space."

Arthur was speechless.

Alfred smirked and plucked a rose from the bush and smelled it. "You did a good job, man. Smell this," he walked over to Arthur and held it out.

Arthur leaned down and smelled, a smile spreading across his face. "Mhm, well I can't take all the credit, nature did a lot of the work, and magic," he murmured the last part.

Alfred resisted from rolling his eyes at the magic comment.

"I can't believe you remember that. . . you barely remember to put pants on."

"Hey! That happened ONE time! Who has a UN meeting at seven in the morning?"

Arthur chuckled. "Well, I'm impressed. . . and touched."

Alfred beamed at the compliment, his heart swelling with pride and giddy joy.

_Man, I need to get a hold of myself._

"Thanks, dude!"

"Well, you're welcome, Alfred." He looks down and cleared his throat, "do you want some tea or something-"

Alfred lost control of himself and took Arthur's face in his hands and kissed him.

_What the fuck am I. . . oh, wow, that's nice. . ._

Arthur pushed him away, breathing hard, his face red. "Alfred! What the hell?" He looked hurt. "What kind of joke is this? You have gone to far this time. Get out of my house, you can see yourself out." He backed up, visibly shaking.

"What? No? Arthur, this isn't a joke-"

"America. . . please." Arthur shook his head. "Leave."

Alfred sighed and started walking away but then stopped. "Arthur, you said you know me well enough to know when I'm lying. Was there any part of that that honestly made you think it was a joke?"

Alfred didn't need to turn around to see that Arthur was taking that in and considering it. He waited ten seconds for Arthur to speak and when he didn't Alfred started walking again.

"But. . . that doesn't make sense," Arthur called back to him.

Alfred smiled, knowing that he got through. He made his way back to Arthur and said, "How does it not make sense? Italy and Germany are together. They're happy. Why can't we be? You can't tell me that you didn't feel anything."

Arthur looked uncomfortable. "Well yes, I did feel something. . . but that doesn't make it rational."

Alfred looked down at Arthur. "Since when has anything we've done been rational?"

"I. . . how long have you felt this way?"

Alfred was about to say today but realized that first off, that wasn't a good way to convince him, and secondly, it also wasn't entirely true. Alfred gave up his own time for Arthur, sure he bitched about it, but he still came. If anybody else asked him he would've hung up. Then the more he thought about it, the more he realized how subconsciously he always tried harder when it came to Arthur, always felt some sort of protection for him when France called him names, when they went into battle against the Axis' worried about him, and secretly jealous when hearing about his pirate days with Spain or when France took a break from name calling to hit on him.

_Have I always been in love with him?_

"Umm. . . years."

Arthur's eyes widened. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"I didn't realize how I felt until today. Why?" He blushed. "You feel the same way?"

Arthur gave him a guilty smile. "I felt the same for years too. . . I didn't think you'd feel the same way."

Alfred moved in closer and caressed his cheek before kissing him again.

This time Arthur wrapped his arms around Alfred's neck and Alfred tried to lower them to the ground but the landing was rougher than anticipated and Arthur chuckled.

Alfred's lips brushed against Arthur's collarbone and began to unbutton his shirt.

"You want to do this here?" Arthur's eyebrows raised.

"Hey, you invited me over to check out your garden. I can't think of a better place to do this."

"What about a bed?"

"Arthur, shut up, you're ruining it."

Before Arthur could retort Alfred pushed his mouth back against his. Arthur's hands struggled in pulling off Alfred's shirt and unbelt his jeans.

Faster than Alfred anticipated they were naked and he was kissing down Arthur's chest.

Alfred heard Arthur's heart beat quicken and grinned before pushing him over on his stomach and thrusting his body into Arthur's.

"Oh!" Arthur exclaimed in surprise then in pleasure.

Alfred kept pushing his body into him, biting his shoulders and kissing the back of his neck.

"Oh. . .America. . . Alfred. . .Oh. . ."

Alfred's breathing became labored as he started to moan with Arthur.

"I. . . I love you, Alfred."

"I love you too. . ." Alfred felt his whole body smile and relax into Arthur's.

He flopped over next to Arthur who instantly clasped his hand.

Alfred snickered. "Hey Britain, dude."

"Mhm?" Arthur said with his eyes closed.

"My hand is bigger than yours."

"So?"

"And I'm taller."

"Good for you."

"And I am forever now going to be on top."

Arthur's eyes flew open. "You will not!"

"You didn't seem to protest too much," he laughed.

"Bloody hell," Arthur groaned and turned away from him.

Alfred wrapped his arms around him and pulled him back to his chest. "I love you."

After a couple seconds Arthur sighed. "I guess I love you too, you unbearable git."

"Good."

"Now roll over and let me make a competition out of who gets top."


End file.
